The day her father cursed her with the demon was a day she would
never forget. First, born into a life of hate, she’d watched her father kill
and torment all those around him. Everyone feared him and thus feared her, the
king of hell’s offspring. What a treat. Emotions such as love had not existed
for her in that life.

As she’d grown older, Layla recognized she was different. The evil
actions done by those of her father’s tyrant brutes to gain his attentions,
Layla found them repulsive and never once envied their status. She shunned away
from it all. This fact angered her father.

To make matters worse, she did not have a mother. She’d been
killed years ago and Layla had never known how or why. Not until the day she stood
up to her father, Teivel, for the first time and demanded answers. What she
didn’t count on was those would be the last words spoken between them, ending
with a punishment far worse than death—a curse of the worst kind. Her father
had instilled one of his spirit-demons inside her in hopes she’d rise up and
become the daughter he wanted her to be and not like the woman he killed with
his two bare hands, her mother.

Layla recalled the night perfectly. It was two hundred
years ago in the mid 1600’s, and chaos and blood-shed filled the air. Finks,
nasty alien parasites who’d made an alliance with her father, came storming in
through their underground portal of hell. The Finks’ had run into a
life-threatening problem. They couldn’t determine the humans infected by
vampire venom and were getting pissed at playing games of Fink-roulette. The
contact with the infected humans resulted in the Finks’ rapid extinction. Therefore
they’d come to see Teivel in hopes of obtaining his help. No doubt they both
wanted the vampire race exterminated.

It was well known vampires and spirit-demons no longer co-existed.
Layla had never known why, but her father had something to do with it. A war
many years ago between the two had ended with blood flowing like a vesting river.

Layla stood frozen behind the one key element that stood between
her and the answers to all her questions. Swallowing hard, she knocked at the
door. Little did she know the moment she walked in, her destiny would change.

A bark came from the other side of the door. “Enter!”

Layla jumped in terror for even she feared her father.

No. Do not let him do
this to you. Lifting her head high, she swung open the door. Eight pairs of
angry Finkeyes glared in her
direction as she stood in the doorway. They stood in a half circle. Funny how
they appeared human, but she knew better. Her father stood dead center, his
back facing the door.

“Father.” She bowed, disgusted.

“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy!” he barked, not bothering
to turn around. No surprise there.

Bastard. Look at me. I’m
your daughter! “I need to talk to you,” she said, regaining her stance and lifting
her head higher.

“Not now.”

Layla decided right there she’d take such treatment no longer and
advanced toward him and the parasites. “FATHER!
Look at me!”